Chandigarh: The nearly three-week-long stalemate between the Punjab cabinet and the state chief secretary ended Wednesday evening after the latter offered an unconditional apology for what was seen as his “rude behaviour”.
The two sides buried the hatchet at a special cabinet meeting convened by Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to resolve the crisis. Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh is said to have apologised to the ministers just as the cabinet meeting began, and the ministers subsequently decided to end the acrimony, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said in a media address.
Earlier this month, the council of ministers decided to boycott all meetings attended by the chief secretary as a mark of protest against what they described as his “rude behaviour and wrong attitude” towards them.
The decision followed an argument between the state ministers and Singh, at a meeting on 9 May, on the issue of excise revenue generation through liquor.
Led by Badal, the ministers had walked out of the meeting in the wake of the argument. Singh was also subsequently divested of his additional charge as Financial Commissioner, Taxation.
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‘Would be arrogant to ignore apology’
Addressing the media after the cabinet meeting, Badal said the chief secretary had said he was sorry for what had happened, and will not give any cause for “unhappiness or dissatisfaction to the ministers” in the future.
“This is the third time that the chief secretary has apologised. On the day that we took up this matter, he had apologised to me personally. Then, when he came to condole the death of my father, he apologised to me the second time and, today, again he has offered an apology,” Manpreet said.
“It would be arrogant on our part to ignore the apology and dig our heels in,” he added, before reciting an Urdu couplet.
“Moosa be poocha baar-e- Allah
(Moosa asked this of God)
Maqbool tere beton mein hai kaun siva
(Who among your sons is the most capable?)
Irshad hua, hai banda mera, jo le sake, or na le, badi ka badla
(It was said — that it is the person who can, but does not, exact revenge for a wrong).”
“It was unanimously decided by the cabinet that the chapter should be closed. It is a triumph of democracy and a triumph of the representatives of the people. It only shows that the position of the representatives of the people in a democracy is significant and they need to be given adequate respect,” Badal said.
The minister added that this isn’t the first instance of differences between civil servants and politicians.
“The number of years that the bureaucrats get to serve is 35 while politicians have to go back to the people and give an account of their work every 5 years. As a result, politicians are always in a hurry to get things done but the bureaucrats are in no such hurry,” he said.
“That is where the differences emerge and the two are not able to walk in tandem.”
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